U2 Puts Their Album On Everybody's iTunes
In the days leading up to an Apple product launch event on 9 September 2014 in Cupertino, California, rumours circulated that U2 would be involved. A spokesperson for the band denied reports that they would perform at the event or that a new album would come preloaded on the anticipated new iPhone 6 smartphone. During the event, after the unveiling of the new iPhone and Apple Watch, U2 appeared on-stage and performed a new song entitled "The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)". Afterwards, Apple CEO Tim Cook joined them to make a surprise announcement that their 13th studio album, Songs of Innocence, had been completed and would be digitally released that day to all iTunes Store customers at no cost. Bono called the album "a gift from Apple... to all their music customers", and said that the group wanted to "get the album to as many people as possible, because that's what our band is all about". The record was automatically added to the "purchased" section of users' iTunes music libraries. It was exclusive to iTunes and the streaming services iTunes Radio and Beats Music until 13 October 2014, when it was physically released and the no-cost promotion within the iTunes Store lapsed. The Edge called the album launch: "incredibly subversive. It's really punk rock, it's really disruptive." Songs of Innocence was made available to more than 500 million iTunes customers in 119 countries, for what Cook marketed as "the largest album release of all time". Bono rejected the notion that U2 had given the album away at no cost, saying: "We were paid. I don't believe in free music. Music is a sacrament." Apple reportedly paid a lump sum to the band and Universal Music Group (UMG) for a five-week exclusivity window in which to distribute Songs of Innocence. According to Billboard's estimates, Apple could have paid either US $52 million to UMG for exclusive rights to the album based on the quantity of downloads, or an upfront fee of about $5 million excluding royalties. In addition, Apple agreed to a marketing campaign for the album reportedly worth around $100 million, which kicked off with a television advertisement featuring "The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)". Apple's partnership with U2 dates back to 2004; in promotion of the band's album How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, its first single, "Vertigo", was featured in an internationally aired iPod television advertisement, while a U2 iPod and an iTunes-exclusive U2 digital box set were also released. The release of Songs of Innocence drew comparisons to that of two 2013 records: Jay-Z's Magna Carta Holy Grail, which was sponsored by Samsung; and Beyoncé's self-titled album, which also was released without any prior promotion or notice. To placate physical retailers affected by the digital exclusivity period, Universal offered them a deluxe version of Songs of Innocence that contains four additional songs, along with several acoustic versions of the record's songs. The bonus tracks were exclusive to brick-and-mortar stores and music streaming services for five weeks. The iTunes Store then released the ten deluxe edition tracks under the title Songs of Innocence + on 18 November 2014. Retailers also received catalogue deals that discounted U2's albums in stores by $3 for a period of time. A Grammy Awards spokesperson initially said the album would not be eligible for consideration at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards because it would not have been available for purchase prior to the 30 September eligibility deadline. However, the ruling was reversed after UMG released a limited-edition vinyl pressing of the album to retailers on the cutoff date. Effectiveness According to Apple, 33 million people accessed the album in its first week of release, either through iTunes downloads or streaming. Within its first month of release, 81 million users had listened to it and 26 million had downloaded the entire record, according to Apple executive Eddy Cue. U2's decision to allow free downloads of Songs of Innocence was questioned by musicians, including the Black Keys' Patrick Carney and Pink Floyd's Nick Mason. Buckcherry guitarist Keith Nelson believed it devalued music, saying U2 had "sent a message to everyone that music is free, and that's disturbing. It's easy to do that when you're a multi-millionaire-billionaire and money isn't really something that you worry about, but when you're a working rock 'n' roll band and you count on every dollar, it's disappointing to see someone do that." The Entertainment Retailers Association reported that UK sales of the band's back catalogue were minimal in the week following the album's release. The organisation's chairman Paul Quirk said: "This vindicates our view that giving away hundreds of millions of albums simply devalues music and runs the risk of alienating the 60% of the population who are not customers of iTunes ... Giving away music like this is as damaging to the value of music as piracy." Reception Many iTunes customers were unhappy that the album was added to their music libraries without their consent. Despite the poor press surrounding the release, an independent study of select iOS users by Kantar Group found that in January 2015, 23 percent of music listeners played at least one song by U2, more than any other artist for that month. The study also found that of those who listened to U2 music, 95 percent of them accessed at least one track from Songs of Innocence. Category:Awful Moments in Music History Category:Events Category:2015 Category:2014